Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Swarmageddon's fury: Cicadas invade N.J., pop culture

$$ ga00Cicada Sapone.JPG

Cicadas have been sighted all over New Jersey and are also invading the arts and food scene as well as pop culture with phrases like "swarmageddon" and "cicadapocalypse" popping up.
(Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger)

Those red-eyed critters known as cicadas have cropped up all over the Garden State, and while their once-every-17-years emergence has entomologists giddy, unsuspecting New Jerseyans such as Andrea Moore say they’re under siege.

Moore, who lives in the Colonia section of Woodbridge, said she recently had to cancel a surprise barbeque for the 50th birthday party of her wife, Joann, because cicadas had covered nearly every open patch outside.

Andrea Moore stands next to one of the many trees in her backyard that have become overrun with cicadas. Moore had been planning to throw a surprise 50th birthday for her wife, Joann, until cicadas began invading her backyard in Colonia.Alex Remnick/The Star-Ledger

In a last ditch effort to save the party, for which nearly 70 guests had RSVPed, Moore said she shelled out $700 and rented out the American Legion hall in Rahway.

"I cannot believe I’m being beat out by bugs," Moore, 46, said.

While Moore shudders at the swarms — their reddish brown shells are littering hundreds of yards mainly in Central and North Jersey — the mysterious cicada has also gained celebrity outside the bug world.

Thrill-seeking foodies and insect experts alike are salivating (for different reasons), artists celebrate both the cicada’s chorus — aâ kâ a its mating chirps — and its form, and terms like "cicadapocalypse" are buzzing in pop culture vernacular.

The East Coast phenomenon is drawing people to New Jersey from across the U.S., said George Hamilton, a cicada expert and professor of entomology at Rutgers University.

A woman from Colorado planning a business trip to New Jersey this month called Hamilton recently, he said. She had a four-hour layover in Newark and wanted to know where to go to see cicadas.

"She doesn’t think she’ll be around when the next brood comes around in 17 years," he said.

Video: Swarm of cicadas in Woodbridge disrupt partyAndrea Moore shot raw footage of a mass of cicadas that was found in the Colonia section of Woodbridge. She recently had to cancel a surprise barbecue for her wife Joann's 50th birthday because their yard was swarmed by cicadas. (Video courtesy of Andrea Moore)

Pockets of "high emergence" have shown up in both North and South Jersey, Hamilton said, with towns like Morris Plains and Peapack-Gladstone as some of the hot spots. New York-based radio station WNYC's citizen science project known as the Cicada Tracker shows the biggest clusters of sightings in Middlesex and Union counties.

Normally the cicada outbreak would have peaked by now but the cool spring weather may have extended the emergence a bit, Hamilton said.

Jeff Meierdierck works at Trader Joe’s in Westfield, where cicadas have been seen buzzing around the parking lot. The other day, he helped a woman in the lot after a cicada flew into her bag and she "was too afraid to take it out."

"I ended up taking all the groceries out and shook the bag till it came out," he said.

A short distance away, at the McKinley Elementary School, fourth-grade teacher Ann Minski said she’s taking advantage of a ready-made "science lesson."

"Some of the students are disgusted and others are fascinated," said Minski, who lives in Fanwood. At least one student, she said, was frightened enough to stay inside during recess.

In Montclair, artists are flocking to create paintings, drawings and sculptures in honor of the insects for the Art Garage’s Cicadageddon Art Show in town. There are prizes for the best entries and so far more than a dozen artists have submitted applications, owner Suzanne O’Connor said.

O’Connor, of Glen Ridge, recalls the invasion 17 years ago. Just two months earlier, she had given birth and was living in Jersey City caring for a colicky baby, and the invasion left her wondering, "What is this? Where did it come from?"

Now cicada-related necklaces, earrings and other jewelry have flooded popular sites such as Etsy, she said. So have T-shirts emblazoned with phrases like "Keep calm and wear ear plugs" or "I survived the emergence of 2013." New Jersey Institute of Technology’s David Rothenberg who has studied the history of insects in classical music, wears this cicada T-shirt: “sing fly mate die.”

Rothenberg’s recently released book, "Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Music and Noise," has become part of a related film titled "Song of the Cicada" to be shown on May 22 at the Judson Church in New York.

The cicadas’ signature loud chirping comes from the male — three species in this year’s brood will each have distinct mating calls — while females click their wings in response. After mating, females lay eggs in small slits on the underside of tree branches, which can cause minor damage to twigs called "flagging," and then the adult cicadas die, Hamilton said.

Three to four weeks later, the eggs hatch and the small nymphs fall to the ground and burrow down only to emerge for the next 13- or 17-year cycle, once the ground temperature at 8 inches below reaches a steady 64 degrees, experts say.

"Around my area, it sounds like a helicopter hovering outside at all times," said Meierdierck, the 25-year-old Trader Joe’s worker who lives in Westfield. "It’s terrible, they’re all over."

After hearing about Moore’s infestation, her friend and co-worker Kenneth Connelly brought his 4-year-old son Kenny Jr. to her house in Colonia.

The self-described bug enthusiast from Linden brought with him a mini bug vacuum, which they used to capture, admire and release a half dozen cicadas. But after seeing Moore’s house, Connelly’s not sad the bugs have skipped his home.

"What we saw at Andrea’s house was overwhelming to anyone — even if you’re intrigued by them," he said.